Princess Sophia Memorial Book

The SS Princess Sophia Memorial Book is an interactive touch screen application that lets users manually navigate the content of a digital book by turning its virtual pages. It features a simple content management system that allows the text and image content to be added and edited by even non-technical staff, and in real time.

The book provides biographical information of photos of the 300+ passengers and crew of the SS Princess Sophia, a historic vessel that sank in 1918. It also features background information about the vessel, and historical content covering the Klondike Gold Rush region of Alaska, the Yukon, and northern British Columbia.

Displayed on a touch screen, the pages can be turned by swiping reminiscent of a physical book, or by single touch. Navigation is possible from lettered tabs on each side of the book, or by an index of passenger names which link to the appropriate pages.

The book pages are generated dynamically from information entered onto a simple spreadsheet, so the museum’s volunteer staff could easily add and edit the content on an ongoing basis. Because of this, the project would be easily adaptable and repurposable to other subject matter, with minimal technical resources.